


Children Caught In War

by TabbyPanther



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/F, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, its gonna get a lot less cute, lil bit of Mary Sue Poots, little baby assassins and superheroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-05-10 05:10:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5572234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TabbyPanther/pseuds/TabbyPanther
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We all know meeting your soulmate can change your life but what about a chance encounter between two children one dark night? Would it change their lives as we know them?</p><p>What about if one is determined to stay away from the other to save them but, somehow, they always manage to get right in the middle of it anyway?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Meeting

The first time Mary Sue Poots meets her soulmate, she is eight. And cold. And lonely. And frightened.

Especially frightened.

Mary had honestly thought the Carmichael’s would be different, or at least have the decency to, you know, actually drop her back at the orphanage rather than just leave her in a shady alley in Hell’s Kitchen a good hour's walk from St. Agnes on her short legs.

It’s dark and wet and Mary is only wearing some loose, ripped jeans and a cotton bare polo top, but she starts her trek back to St. Agnes anyway; she had long ago memorised a complete map of all five boroughs in preparation for this kind of situation. Matt was always telling her that it was important to know where you were at all times.

It seemed pretty sage advice from the blind kid, though she didn’t know how he followed it. You know, being blind and all.

So Mary knew a few short cuts, and maybe it wasn’t her smartest idea to use them in the dead of the night when there was no CCTV or pay phones or anything nearby. But, hey, she was eight and just wanted to sleep, so sue her.

She only realised what a mistake she made as she cut through behind a bar notorious for entertaining most of the local scum and was confronted with a bunch of hairy, smelly, gnarly looking middle aged men who seemed to be focussed on something at the other end of the alley that was blocked from her eyesight by their imposing statures.

She was about to double back when she accidently scuffed her worn sneaker and kicked a loose piece of gravel into a nearby trashcan. The sound bounced off of the buildings either side of the alley and Mary froze.

Half of the burly men turned to search for the source of the sound while the other half stayed focussed on their previous target.

“Looks like we have another one boys.” The obvious ring leader drawled with a perverse smirk and swiftly grabbed her upper arm in a bruising grip before she could even fully turn to run away.

The small brunette slapped uselessly at the hand dragging her further into the alley, trying to dig her heels into the ground before realising that it causing more damage to her shoes than it impeded the man’s progress. Mary gave in and let her whole body go limp in his grasp. That didn’t affect him either.

Mary wondered, distantly, why she wasn’t far more panicked in this moment, instead eerily calm but, before she could fully consider it, she saw her. The original target of this group’s attention: a girl who couldn’t be more than four or five years older than Mary herself with vibrant red, unruly hair and piercing green eyes that seemed to read Mary’s very soul.

Though, unlike the young orphan, this girl stood confidently, sizing up the men instead of cowering before them. Her eyes flickered with something Mary couldn’t understand when she caught sight of her, but otherwise she stood impassive and Mary couldn’t help but be mesmerised.

She looked _even more_ grown up than the big girls at St. Agnes that teased her for being a reject.

But there was something else as well, some other draw that left Mary unable to tears her gaze from the red head.

“Tell Markovnikov,” the man hold her growled, and Mary realised he had a thick, deep accent. From where, she didn’t know, but it sounded imposing, “that if he can use children, so can we.”

Suddenly, she was yanked up and the only thing keeping her feet off the ground was the thickly muscled forearm around her neck. Yet, she still couldn’t find it in herself to panic and that alone was starting to worry her. Sure, she had never really panicked, well, ever, but she had also never been in a situation like this before.

Somehow, through the hazy mist that her vision was slowly becoming as she still wasn’t allowed to breathe, she locked eyes with the mystery girl not ten feet from her.

It was as if that was all the prompting she needed, because she suddenly leapt into action, sprinting at one of the men taking him down with an ease that looked even more fluid through Mary’s blurred vision.

Mary continued to watch until one last jerk of her captor’s arm sent her spiralling into unconsciousness. She barely even registered the thud as she hit the ground, the overwhelming urge to sleep becoming too much.

 

* * *

 

When Mary woke again, her back and the seat of her pants were damp from the building she was propped up against, her vision came in spotty and her neck ached but what she really noticed was the girl sat against the wall opposite her, playing with something sleek and sharp in her hands.

The girl sensed her awakening and quickly stored the- knife, was it? In a pocket sewn into her clothing. Mary cautiously watched as the girl approached, cradling her bruised throat carefully with her hand.

“ _You were very brave, devushka_.” The red head nodded, as if to second her own opinion.

Mary merely stared up at the girl in awe, letting her deep, lilting voice soothe the fuzziness in her head and the pain in her neck. This girl – _her soulmate_ – saved her life and spoke the words elegantly scrawled across her collar bone.

“ _You_ ,” Mary croaked and winced as the gravelly sound stung her throat, “ _Are you some kind of ninja?_ ”

Mary thought it was an understandable question, what with the awesome fighting moves she took down those idiots with, but unexpectedly, the gentleness on the red head’s face disappeared as she completely shut down, her features becoming hard and fearsome.

Mary was roughly helped to her feet and half-dragged half-carried out of the alley.

“You should forget this ever happened.” She spoke swiftly and professionally as she briskly made her way down the block, Mary stumbling clumsily after, “If you don’t you will find yourself in much more danger much more frequently.” She jerked to a stop and stared determinedly into Mary’s eyes, “Understand?”

The brunette nodded mutely and raced after her protector again as she turned on her heel and strutted away.

The rest of the journey to the orphanage was made in silence, apart from to tell the red head where Mary was going. She didn’t question why the brash red head seemed so intent on delivering her there safely.

The older girl stopped just around the corner from St. Agnes so Mary turned to her questionably.

“It is best if I am not seen with you at the orphanage.”

Mary nodded with an understanding she didn’t possess, then shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, unsure how to say goodbye to a soulmate that seemed to want nothing to do with her, just like her parents. Though, at least this time it seemed to be for her safety, whatever that meant.

“Thank you.” She said instead and wondered why her saviour seemed to squirm uncomfortably under the praise before she nodded, “I guess maybe I’ll see you around someday.”

The red head looked pained, then murmured, “For your sake, I hope not.”

Mary couldn’t help the twinge of hurt she felt at those words, but she tried not to show it. Who knew what would happen in the future, they were only children with their whole lives ahead of them. Maybe circumstance would change. But for now, eight year old Mary Sue Poots had to accept her fate, if somewhat begrudgingly.

Determined to not let the situation mar their first meeting, Mary beamed up at her soulmate and quickly placed a smacking kiss to her cheek, one which she was too surprised to flinch away from quickly enough.

“Bye.” She sing-songed with her still croaky voice and pranced around the corner, leaving a somewhat gobsmacked KGB child-assassin staring after her with the slightest of blushes rising to her cheeks.

Snapping herself out of it, Natalia Romanova rubbed sullenly at her cheeks as she turned towards her lodgings for the night, muttering grumpily to herself.

_“You are better than this. You are a soviet spy. Damn it, you have a crush.”_


	2. Second Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this story I'm using more of a comic genesis for Skye's powers. So she's not inhuman, simply enhanced.

The second time they meet it is significantly less dramatic. Mary, who went by Skye then – because, frankly, Mary Sue is absolutely terrible – had just turned ten. Maybe. (Who really knew?)

She was hanging out with Matty in the old skate park that had been abandoned by the actual skaters when an outreach program built a better skate park a few blocks over. Matty and Skye had spent much more time with each other after he came back from Stick – odd name but Skye wasn’t one to judge – and Skye had soon discovered that the boy liked to hang out in quiet places more than anything, due to sensory over stimulation, and recently, Skye had been of the same school of thought.

She didn’t know why, but lately everything reverberated more, sounds echoed in her head almost painfully after a while and everything seemed to blur and fuzz around the edges as if it were vibrating. She didn’t know if she was sick or just plain crazy, but she did know that being in large, bland, quiet areas didn’t give her such a bad headache. Which was why this concrete park under a disused bridge was perfect.

They wouldn’t do much often when the two orphans hung out together. Sometimes Skye would bring along the laptop she had managed to piece together from spare parts scrounged from various dumpsters behind tech shops across the city and type away at it while Matty would do weird yoga-type exercises he called “Tai Chi”. Sometimes Skye would leave her laptop at the orphanage and Matty would teach her Tai Chi, though she preferred it when he taught her to box.

Skye never questioned why Matty always knew when she went wrong or misplaced her footing and he never talked about her “vibrations” other than to ask if she was alright in a loud room from time to time. They had a good thing going and Skye discovered she was really rather adept at learning all the different movements.

This day, however, Skye had found an old, rusty skateboard in the gap between a concrete ramp and a concrete wall, then decided that skateboarding couldn’t be _that_ hard, right?

She had fallen over ten times in the first five minutes.

She stubbornly kept getting back on the board, ignoring Matty’s raucous laughter, and set off again. Down a ramp. Not her best idea, no matter how weirdly quick she was getting the hang of it.

It was just as she placed her second foot on the board that she sensed something pulsing and alive and definitely _not Matty_ just behind the pillar to her eleven o’clock. In her hurry not to go anywhere near this mystery creeper, Skye lost her balance and ended up semi-skating semi-tumbling right towards said pillar she wanted to stay the hell away from.

Resigning herself to her fate in an eerily familiar fashion, the brunette turned her head to shout at Matty.

“There’s someone here!” She yelped, and managed to see the blind boy shoot to his feet before she stumbled into a pair of lithe, strong arms.

The momentum Skye had should have made even a fully grown man stumble back, but instead, Skye found herself in a weird dippy motion before gracefully twirled back onto her feet.

She was met with very memorable, piercing green eyes.

“It’s you!” The brunette exclaimed, clutching at her soulmate’s upper arms to keep herself upright.

She felt something steady and strong behind her, but couldn’t make herself look away from the redhead. Though the older girl did snap a look up at the thing behind her – most likely Matty – and took up a more protective stance.

“Skye,” Yup, it was Matty, “who is this?” He placed a firm but gentle hand on her lower back, supportive but cautious.

“My soulmate.” Skye breathed, then chuckled, “What even _is_ your name? I’ve been calling you ginger ninja in my head for the past two years.”

The redhead looked both affronted and amused and Skye moved out of her arms – it wasn’t exactly a hug, more of a steadying _hold_ – and stood so she could face both Matty and her soulmate.

The redhead seemed to ponder the question for a few moments before coming to a decision.

“Natasha,” she said, only a faint accent detectable, “You can call me Natasha.”

Skye couldn’t sense any change in her vibrations – they _always_ changed when someone was lying – but she still looked to Matty who, despite his blindness, seemed to be scrutinising her soulmate. Matty always, _without fail_ , knew when someone was lying.

Matty tilted his head from side to side in thought, then turned to Skye and nodded. Skye grinned.

“Well, hello, Natasha. I’m Skye and this is Matty!” The brunette tried to tamp down her excitement, but couldn’t help slightly jumping from one foot to the other in glee.

She saw Natasha smile – a small, unfamiliar little thing, as if she didn’t do it often – before she looked Matty up and down, as if unsure of something. Her turmoil was solved when Matty offered his hand in greeting. They shared a brief but firm handshake, it was stiff and professional and Skye couldn’t help but think it was a little bit ridiculous for two teenagers, but hey. Whatever floated their boat, right?

“What’cha doin’ here, Nat? Tasha? Natasha?” Skye pondered aloud, “Yeah, no, Nat. I like Nat.”

Natasha smiled that small smile again when she turned to Skye. She didn’t want to hide it either, especially because the other kid was blind. Maybe. He seemed a little too sure to be completely blind.

“I like Nat, too.” The redhead spoke softly, “And I was just cutting through here on my way… home, when I saw you.”

“Really?” Skye gasped. Natasha had actually wanted to see her? “Do you know how to skateboard? ‘Cos I would ask Matty to teach me but that’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

Matt shot Skye a wounded look, then Natasha one as she softly snorted in amusement.

“Sure, I can stick around for a bit.”

So, Matty went back to his quite place at the top of a short flight of concrete steps and started his Tai Chi movement and Natasha helped Skye balance her body weight properly on the board, glancing interestedly at Matt occasionally.

By the time a few hours had passed and the sun was setting below the low skyline, Skye was zooming deftly around the skate park, even doing some rudimentary tricks and Natasha was slightly astounded at how quickly the younger girl had picked the skill up, especially when she had divulged that she had only ever watched _others_ do it.

Natasha checked her KGB issue watch – equipped with such luxuries as: a short range receiver and scrambler, a cyanide pill and even a small explosive device – and saw that she only had half an hour before she had to report back to her handler in Manhattan.

Sighing, she weighed the merits of stopping her soulmate to say goodbye or just sneaking off without being seen. Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on one’s point of view – she felt someone behind her before she could make either move.

“I don’t know who you are or what your aim is, but Skye is my friend, my _sister_ , and if you even try to hurt her by continuing to lie or hiding things or refusing to see her for another two years, I will do my very best to make you regret it. I know you’re not just another fourteen year old, but neither am I, understand?” Matt threatened in a low voice, just at her ear.

Natasha instinctively tensed for attack at the threat and his proximity, but forced herself to calm. She knew there was something about him that wasn’t settling right, and he just confirmed it, but all he was doing was trying to protect her soulmate and if she couldn’t be there to do it, she was glad he was.

“I don’t want to hurt her,” She stated in a low whisper, “but sometimes pain follows me and I can’t stop it.”

“Then you better be willing to fight for her.” The taller boy informed her.

“I am.”

“Good.” He nodded, then took a few steps back, “Don’t forget to say goodbye.” Matt intoned as he pivoted on his heel and walked back to the exit he would take home, and waited there for Skye.

The brunette in question saw the last part of the exchange, then looked up at the dimming sky, and guessed it was time to go back to the orphanage. School tomorrow, she thought morosely, then looked back at her soulmate. They locked eyes as Skye made her way over.

“You leaving again?” She asked monotonously.

“Yeah, but I’ll come back. I don’t know when, but I will see you again.” The redhead almost ended with ‘I promise’ but nothing in her life was a guarantee and it would be unfair to Skye to promise anything.

“Okay.” Skye replied, perking up a bit.

“Okay.” The spy echoed.

Suddenly, and Natasha wasn’t quite sure how she could be taken off guard by this grinning ball of sunshine, she was attacked in a hug. Natasha stumbled back half a step, wind milling her forearms where her elbows were trapped to her sides, then returned the embrace. Skye’s head barely tucked under her chin.

They stood like that, gently swaying, for a few moments before Matty pointedly cleared his throat and Skye pranced off, picking up her manky skateboard and shooting Natasha a grin over her shoulder as the two orphans disappeared out of sight.

Natasha looked back at her watch. Twenty minutes to check in.

With a dejected sigh, Natasha slipped into the shadows of New York’s back alleys, steadily making her was back to her handler. Not for the first time did she wish the Red Room had just left in that burning building with her parents, especially if they made it their missions to kill all asset’s soulmates.


	3. Lessons Learnt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I can't even remember the last time a posted, last year probably. Anyway, sorry for the long wait, what can I say? I'm lazy.  
> Enjoy!

Sometimes, Skye ruminated, it was odd how you could love someone so much – with your whole heart and soul – and yet still dislike them. Like, Skye loved Mattie, he was pretty much the only constant in her turbulent, lonely life, often times she would even fantasise about running away with him and living in some cliché suburban house in New Jersey, but then he did things like make her school fully assess her academic capability with IQ tests and standardised tests for all of the grades up until grade ten. It was at these times when Skye’s day dreams drifted more towards finding a rusty pipe and whacking her pseudo-brother around the head with it.

So what if she was a genius? School was still as boring as all hell, her headaches weren’t letting up any time soon – sometimes she even passed out when it all got too much – and to top it all off, she had literally just been sent back by another family.

The eleven year old had truly thought the Brody’s were different, the parents were nice – lovely, even – she got on swimmingly with their biological children, she was even stupid enough to think it was okay to call Mrs. Brody “mom”, completely missing how the woman’s vibrations sped up, breaking her harmony, and the way her eyes winced even as she smiled. Of course she was sent back the next day because Skye was only ever given something good if it would hurt to take it away.

So Skye had done the sensible and healthy thing, she took all of that emotion and rejection, balled it up, firmly stuffed it inside a box at the very back of her mind, and focussed all of her energy into acing these dumb tests. It’s not like she had a lot else going for her these days and damn if she wasn’t tired of her teachers treating her with pity just because she was the orphan.

 

* * *

 

Unexpected consequence of acing the tests that Skye should have, 100%, expected: she was moved to the local high school to share classes with a whole bunch of sixteen year olds, she was actually in the grade above Mattie, which, despite how much she hated the move, Skye would tease him about constantly.

And yeah, okay, school was actually a bit more interesting now and they had put her in an actual computer science class and let her use actual, honest to god, computers that weren’t scraped together from garbage diving excursions, but the actual people in her grade were either supreme dicks to her – about her age, gender, race, familial status, ect., take your fucking pick, they’d probably abused her for it – or they were overly nice to her in a condescending way purely to see if she would do their homework.

Due to this, most times the final school bell rung and students would charge out of the front doors, Skye was fuming. Sure, she was small and young, but, by god, when she was angry, she could be fucking terrifying. People would move out of her way when they saw her coming, avoid eye contact and once a freshman had even fainted from holding his breath as she walked past, but come rain or shine, day in day out, Mattie would always be waiting for her at the front gates, arm cocked and cane extended before him.

The old skate park having been closed off for construction of an apartment complex, the duo had taken to going to the warehouse district near the docks after school, seeing as most of them were completely empty and disused anyway, no one would care if a couple of kids threw around a few forgotten pipes or sat in the rafters.

But today? Today was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back for Skye. That douche Jimmy had knocked into her and made her spill all of chemicals over the desk in their assessed practical, even burning her hand slightly, then in gym everyone save for the new girl had ganged up on her in dodgeball – she had a black eye and a split lip to show for it – and finally, the pièce de résistance, someone had stolen her clothes – one of the three outfits she actually owned after charity distribution at St. Agnes – torn them up and thrown them over the powerlines going over the street outside school.

So she told Mattie as much, pacing frantically up and down the strip of concrete in front of the boy sat cross-legged against the corrugated steel wall, waving her hands in wild, violent gesticulations. She could feel the anger bubble up from within her, closing around her throat like a vice and plaguing her mind with dark fantasies, but more than anything, she felt the surge of power spreading out from her very core, like a swarm of wasps coursing through her veins, buzzing and buzzing and-

“-kye! Skye! We gotta go!” Mattie was shouting, straining to be heard over the cacophonous noise of- of- of the ground crumbing and building collapsing round them? The older boy was rushing over to her, frantic with worry, but Skye could only watch, mesmerised, as a symphony of destruction played right in front of her, for the first time in years she felt _right,_ like this had been building and building for as long as she could remember only to be set free in a deluge, and just like that, Skye knew this was no natural earthquake, no, she could feel the power rippling off of her in commanding waves, tearing through the concrete to reach the earth it had so long been separated from.

She felt at peace, and strong like she never had before.

But Mattie was still looking at her with equal worry and confusion, his lips pursed and head cocked, but his jaw firmly clenched and she knew this couldn’t be good for his enhanced senses, so she focussed, focussed on the power rushing out of her, commanding it to stop, not to come back to her, but to slowly, calmly, fizzle out until, with one, weak quake, the ground settled and Skye fell to it in physical and mental fatigue.

Mattie was not long behind, carelessly dropping his collapsed cane to one side while he kneeled beside her, gently stroking the brunette’s arm with one hand while his other when around her waist to keep her upright as her torso swayed forward. He could hear her heart pumping in her chest, too fast for him to even distinguish an individual beat, but he smiled, he smiled because this was his little sister in all but blood, his strong, wilful sister who finally realised the potential Mattie had seen in her for years.

“We’re quite a pair, huh kid?” He whispered soothingly in her ear. The girl in his arms let out a weak, but amused, laugh, turning her lulling head towards him with a tired smile, though the joy and wonder radiated through.

“I can feel _everything_. It’s beautiful.”

“Yeah,” Matt responded, pulling Skye further into his side as he listened to the far away waves lapping gently against the docks not two hundred yards away, “it really is.”

 

* * *

 

“The first and third are a lie.” Skye stated, bored, as she leant back from her concentrated slouch, using her hands on the floor behind her to keep her balance, “You know, this game is significantly less fun when we can read each other’s vital signs.”

Matt let a long suffering sigh from where he sat a metre opposite her in the condemned old ramshackle building they had taken to ‘training’ in. This was not the first time Skye had voiced this particular complaint.

“That’s because it’s not a game. I’m trying to teach you to protect yourself.”

“I still prefer the hitting you with sticks part of teaching me to protect myself, that bit is fun.” Skye shot back with an easy grin.

“I don’t mean just physically, Skye, you need to be able to protect yourself mentally and emotionally as well or the effects can be just as, if not more, devastating as a broken bone. I just-” the boy sighed, rubbing tiredly at his temples, and Skye felt a wave of guilt for belittling his help, scooting over to thrown an arm around his shoulders and lean her forehead onto his temple, “I just want you to be safe.” He whispered, barely audible.

“I know.” She said back, just as quietly.

“There may always be people out there who want to exploit you and your abilities, we can’t change that, but you can change whether or not you let them do it.”

“I- Thank you.”

“I love you, Skye, even when you’re a pain in my ass.”

“Hey!” The blind boy smiled as Skye jokingly shoved him away from her, “I resent that.”

“But was I lying?” He asked with a cheeky smile, only to laugh as he deftly dodged her lunge, rolling to his feet in a loose defensive stance, “ready for melee weapons training?”

“Try and make it sound as fancy as you want, Mattie, it’s still gonna be hitting each other with sticks!” Skye snorted.

With only a slightly affronted expression, Matt quickly spun away, grasping one of the less rusty pieces of thin piping they set aside for this purpose, then kicking off the wall to face the room again, keeping his senses open for any movement. He would almost have thought the room was empty if not for the slight creaking from above him, Skye had got worryingly good at masking her heartbeat.

He quickly brought up his ‘staff’ to block the attack, Skye’s pipe clattering against his as she brought it down with all the power from jumping down from the rafters gave her. Matt grinned as he pushed back and Skye only stumbled slightly.

“Still having a little trouble with the landing, I see?”

Skye snorted and spun her leg out, which Matt easily dodged stuck forward with his own ‘staff’.

“I think you’ve forgotten the definition of ‘blind’, Mattie.”

“Oh har-har, very funny.” He retorted, spinning out from his blocked attack, listening out for movement again. He jolted when Skye tapped lightly, from behind, at his shoulder, a mischievous smile adorning her young features.

“Yeah, I thought so too, glad we’re on the same page.”

 

* * *

 

Exactly one hundred and six minutes later, after ten minutes of stretching Skye had managed to complain all the way through, the two ‘siblings’ exited the building the only way they could: their school bags over their shoulders as they scaled the side of the wall, a mixture of drainage pipes and crumpling fire escapes helping them on their way down.

Matt reached the ground first, jumping the last ten feet and landing in a silent crouch, Skye descending into a similar crouch before he had even straightened up again.

“I swear,” Skye started, as they ventured out of the back alley into the darkened December afternoon, “I could become a spy with all the stuff you’re teaching me.” Though, as she felt Matt’s slight increase in heartbeat, she winced, “Or, you know, not.”

Subtly as he could, which was still pretty obvious to Skye stood not a foot away from him in the quiet street, he let out a relieved breath.

“I think, for now, you should probably focus on your academia. How’s that going, by the way? You enjoying your AP courses?”

Skye rolled her eyes with an indulgent smile, “They’re pretty cool, I guess. The people don’t judge me as much since they’re all really into learning it anyway, and the teachers are more excited about having students actually wanting to know about it all, though I still know most of what my CS course. What about you, English Prodigy? Still owning your AP English, waxing poetic about, uh, stuff?”

Matt chuckled, “It’s at times like this I’m reminded you have such a science brain.”

“Yeah, well, I figure together we make one whole genius.”

“Sure, whatever y-”

Whatever Matt was about to say was cut off when Skye wheeled around the corner into an alley opening, pushing her forearm against a neck and firmly shoving the connecting body into the brick wall. The figure didn’t fight back, only raising one immaculate eyebrow in question, their gaze briefly flickering to the relatively well muscled teenager standing strongly behind her captor.

“Nat?!” Skye whispered in shock, staring before she realised their positions, quickly releasing the slightly older girl and taking a step back, feeling Matt’s front pressed firmly to her back.

“That was unexpected.” The redhead drawled, all traces of an accent she had last time they met completely vanished, her gaze flicking back further into the alley then out to the street, searching.

“What- what are you doing?” Skye questioned, noticing Natasha’s slightly elevated heartrate and following her gaze, “What’s wrong?”

“I really don’t-”

“She went this way!” Came a distant voice, low and rough, from behind the fifteen foot wall at the end of the alley.

“You’ve got to go.” Natasha said- pleaded. This was exactly what she was trying to avoid, putting her soulmate in danger because of her ‘job’, yet the universe, being the bitch it was, seemed intent on having them gravitate back to one another.

“Why are they after you?” Skye questioned fiercely, roughly shoving Matt’s steering hands off her shoulders, “What did you do? What _do_ you do?”

“I can’t tell you. You won’t- you won’t like it.”

“I don’t like _not_ knowing.” the small brunette spat back, content to ignore the approaching footsteps on the other side of the wall, “I’ve seen you three times in the last six years, the first time you essentially tell me you don’t want to see me again and the next you’re perfectly content to spend _hours_ with me?! I don’t even really know you! I have a name you probably made up and that you seem to attract thugs!”

Natasha took the barrage, her eyes wetting uncomfortably, before she turned her pleading eyes to Matt. He reluctantly nodded, like he’d rather do anything else, and gathered a struggling Skye fully into his arms, covering her mouth with a pained grimace, and shot Natasha one last, dark, look before he took off towards St. Agnes. That one look said more than words could have expressed in that moment, _this is your fault_ , _we were fine_ , _she was happy then you came along_ , _I hate you for making me do this_.

Natasha followed the pair with her eyes until they disappeared from sight, then roughly wiped at her eyes, she wasn’t crying but they itched with the potential. It didn’t matter if her soulmate hated her, she told herself, she just had to make sure the Red Room never found out about Skye.

At the sound of booted feet scrabbling over brick and the thud of rubber hitting the ground, Natasha turned and steeled herself for her mission. Her employers wanted the Black Widow to escort these men to the docks, so escort them to the docks she would.

“I had hoped for more from you, Volkov practically sang your praises.” She taunted the group of a half dozen men, earning their ire once more before slipping through the back alleys and secret tunnel that lead to the docks, making sure to always stay in their line of sight.

Skye was safe, that was all that mattered right now.


End file.
